high weirdness

As part of the inaugural reread series on Reality Sandwich, Erik Davis, author ofTechGnosis and Nomad Codes, spoke with me recently about the “High Weirdness” of Philip K. Dick and the postmodern pink-gnosis of VALIS, a partly…

Back in the heyday of small magazine publication, the late John Keel zigzagged the length and breadth of America in pursuit of UFOs and mysterious apparitions, a Fortean gumshoe and philosopher seeking the grand pattern underlying everything that ever went bump in the night. Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies is a classic of Fortean and paranoid literature, and his ideas, along with those of Jacques Vallee, redefined the paranormal for the age of postmodernism and quantum physics. I love Keel, but he’s a tough character to figure out. He can appear canny and cynical one moment, a little too credulous of tall tales the next. You feel sometimes like he’s being completely earnest and serious, others like he’s pulling your leg near out of its socket. Anyway, I was surprized recently to discover on youtube that Keel’s journeys into the weirder spectrum of American life brought him face to face with David Letterman in 1980. It is interesting to note Keel’s reference to what he calls “sky quakes”, explosions in the sky which sound very much like the mysterious loud booms which have been one of the biggest Fortean memes of 2012 so far. Keel gets a surprisingly respectful treatment, although he seems to stretch Letterman and the audience’s patience when he refers to modern dinosaur appearances:

The Pyramids and the Pentagon is a detailed study of how and why government agencies have, for decades, taken a clandestine and profound interest in numerous archeological, historical, and religious puzzles. Focusing primarily upon the classified work of the U.S. Government, The Pyramids and the Pentagon invites you to take a wild ride into the fog-shrouded past. It’s a ride that incorporates highlights such as: The CIA’s top-secret files on Noah’s Ark; U.S. Army documents positing that the Egyptian Pyramids were constructed via levitation; Disturbing military encounters with Middle Eastern djinns; Claims of nuclear warfare in ancient India; Links between the Face on Mars and the pharaohs; And many more!

Nick Redfern’s The Pyramids and the Pentagon clearly and provocatively demonstrates that deep and dark conspiracies exist within the shadowy world of officialdom–conspiracies that have the ability to rock the foundations of civilization, religion, and history to their very core. The strange and amazing secrets of the past are just a heavily guarded government vault away.